Parliamentary Debate as a Source of Justification for the Combat Against Gender Violence Act

This chapter analyses the debates held in the Spanish Parliament that resulted in the approval of the Act on the Combat against Gender Violence (Ley Orgánica 1/2004). Methodologically, the analysis starts by reconstructing how social and legislative debates on gender violence evolved in Spain, i.e. how the social problem was forged in the public sphere and by the mass media, how the debate reached the legislative stage, and how the parliamentarians amended—or attempted to amend—the proposed bill during the legislative procedure. Scholarly discussions following the passage of the law and its post-legislative impacts (including the judicial application of the law) are also considered. Throughout this reconstructive analysis of legislative argumentation on the combat against gender violence, the essay delves into a number of the legisprudential issues that can be identified in the MPs’ contribution to the shaping of this statute.